Be Vigilant – Avoid yourself from becoming a victim of a SCAM

Here presented are the most common internet scams reported in Sri Lanka and some important details to safeguard your personal information and money from those scams.

Lottery scams – You might receive an email, text message or phone call saying that you have won a lot of money or fantastic prizes in a lottery or you have won the Green Card to USA. These scams try to trick you into deposit a fee upfront or provide your personal details in order to receive the prize.

Job and employment scams – These scams offer you work from home job opportunities or request you to invest in a business opportunity. Scammers offer a job with a high salary or a large investment return after an initial upfront payment for registration. These scams are often promoted through spam email or advertisements in websites or social media. Online shopping scams – There are fake websites that offer “great deals” on well-known brands. Many of these websites offer expensive items such as popular brands of clothing, jewelry and electronics at very low prices.  Once you buy the item and pay the price, chances are you will receive a fake item or nothing at all.

A newer version of these scams uses social media platforms to set up fake online stores. These stores are open for a short time, often selling branded clothing or jewelry. After making a number of sales, the stores disappear without delivering the items. Sometimes these fake sellers use social media to advertise their fake websites.

Charity and medical scams – Scammers take advantage from generous people who want to donate for a good cause. Scammers might use a recent natural disaster or crisis that has been in the news or they might ask you to help a sick child’s surgery. Charity scams can come to you in many forms such as emails, social media posts, text messages or phone calls. Fake parcel delivery scams- In these scams you will receive an email, text massage or a phone call stating you that a fee or the customs charge needs to be paid in order for the goods to be released for delivery.

The following tips can help you avoid these scams:

• Practice good cyber hygiene:
  1. Do not click on links or open suspicious email attachments from people you don’t know.
  2. Manually type out website links instead of clicking on them.
  3. Do not provide your personal or financial information in response to an email, phone call or text message.
• Remember not to deposit money in response to an email, phone call or a text message. You will not win a prize from a lottery that you have not entered or no one will send you parcels out of the blue without you ordering.
• Donate only to the established charities or groups whose work you know and trust.
• Make sure you are purchasing goods from a reputable source and check the individual or company to ensure that they are legitimate. Search reviews from other customers. Be suspicious about the offers that are too good to be true.
• Be cautious when dealing with individuals/companies from outside of your own country.
• Do not trust any post just because you have seen it advertised or shared on social media.
• In case you make an online payment, make sure to use a secure payment service: Check if the URL starts with ‘https’ and a closed padlock symbol, or a payment provider such as PayPal. Think twice before making the payment using virtual currencies such as bitcoin. You will not be able to get your money back once you send it.
• In case you are not sure what to do search for assistance from some trusted party who has the knowledge.